nanastuff
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posted on July 20, 2001 08:07:19 AM
My niece is due to deliver her baby girl any day now. She is an LPN at a nursing home (Ohio)and was hired two years ago. She will get 6 weeks maternity leave. She was told by other employees that since she is full time she will receive 60% of her pay while she is off. Yesterday, payroll told her that she will get no pay because she was hired in as a "part time" employee. Keep in mind that she has worked 40+ hours per week since the day she was hired. "Full time" employees DO get 60% of their pay while on maternity leave. Do any of you know anything about this or have any suggestions? Just doesn't seem right to me.
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gravid
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posted on July 20, 2001 08:13:52 AM
You are at the wrong place. You should be at a lawyer's office.
When I have worked part time jobs before they were always careful NOT to allow me to work more than 35 hours a week because their understanding was that it did not matter on what basis I was hired if they actually used me full time. However that is not to say with any guarantee they were correct.
Get expert help. They may owe you for other benefits withheld also....
You should always make sure the lawyer you go to has experience in the area of law you are involved with. Real Estate/criminal / occupational/ patent/etc are all specialties that you are better having someone with specific experience.
[ edited by gravid on Jul 20, 2001 08:19 AM ]
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nanastuff
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posted on July 20, 2001 08:26:23 AM
Thank you, gravid. I have talked with her about seeing an atty. and keep in mind that she is only 21 yrs. old. She told me this morning that she is afraid of pushing this because of getting fired. She said that they find ways of getting rid of employees that make waves. Also, I didn't say that she does receive full insurance benefits, which is also something I don't understand at this point. She is very young and very afraid of losing her job if she fights this.
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victoria
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posted on July 20, 2001 08:59:00 AM
The investment of a least consulting with a lawyer is a good one. She won't be committed to a course of action, and she'll have the benefit of informed advice on which to base her decision.
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uaru
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posted on July 20, 2001 09:34:28 AM
My wife had 12 weeks maternity leave starting Jan 2. She ended up with about 1/2 the pay she thought she'd get. They have a lot of fine print. I think she had too many vowels in her name to qualify for one benefit. It is frustrating, good luck.
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gravid
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posted on July 20, 2001 09:45:59 AM
If they can pick and chose which of the things they owe you they are going to give to you from their great heartedness what big loss if they fire her? I imaigine they would be opening them selves up to a huge lawsuit if they did. My understanding was that there is such a shortage of nurses now that you shouldn't have any trouble getting another job. It may be hard that first time to take a hike but it gets easier. I quit once after a half hour.
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julesy
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posted on July 20, 2001 09:54:23 AM
Doesn't the Family Medical Leave Act allow for more time off than 6 weeks?
Your niece might also consider contacting the Department of Labor. I had a dispute with a former employer once concerning back pay that they were withholiding. Sent a letter to the Dept. of Labor, copied my former employer, and received a check within two weeks.
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nanastuff
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posted on July 20, 2001 09:59:51 AM
Well....I will speak to her further tomorrow. She went to the dr. and will be going to work from there. She works from 2:30pm until 11:00pm minimum 5 days per week. Yes, gravid, especially in nursing homes there is a huge turnover of nurses. She could find another job in a heartbeat; all I have to do is convince her of that. Isn't there some kind of state organization that helps people with these kind of problems? The attys. around here charge an arm AND a leg to walk into their office, unless it is a law suit (then if they win, they still take an arm and a leg).
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nanastuff
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posted on July 20, 2001 10:02:44 AM
julesy....(we were posting at the same time) THANK YOU THANK YOU.....I will contact the Dept. of Labor. Yes, you can always request more time off. The point is the pay. They do have to give you the min. 6 weeks off, but that does not mean that they have to pay you at all for the time off.
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doxdogy
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posted on July 20, 2001 05:20:01 PM
A brief overview taken from the Department of Labor website. She can get more specifics from the website. They can get up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave a year. This can be used all at once or over a period of 12 months.
"private sector employers who employ 50 or more employees for at least 20 workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year 3/4 including joint employers and successors of covered employers. "
Employee Eligibitlity:
"have worked for that employer for at least 12 months; and have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months prior to the start of the FMLA leave; and, work at a location where at least 50 employees are employed at the location or within 75 miles of the location."
Theresa
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nanastuff
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posted on July 20, 2001 07:51:00 PM
Yes, I do know about the 12 week leave part and she is guaranteed her job. The problem is this....Full time employees with maternity leave also get 60% of their pay while they are off. She has worked full time for two years, but they told her she gets paid nothing because she was hired in on a part time basis. She does have full insurance benefits. Something just doesn't make sense to me.
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ashlandtrader
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posted on July 20, 2001 09:35:57 PM
nanastuff--
Regarding lawyers-- many will do an inital consultation for FREE. Sometimes they do not advertise this, but if you or she gets on the phone and calls a hand full of them, I am betting you will find some that will discuss it for free. If one says no, just keep calling. Someone will.
That sounds worng to me too. I hope she fights it.
Good luck.
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sadie999
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posted on July 21, 2001 01:05:29 AM
I don't know what state you're in, but just calling someone "part-time" when you employ them full time isn't enough to keep people from getting benefits in many states. Your neice may have a much juicier case here than just the 60% pay - like compensation for back benefits, etc.
I didn't perk up on this until you said she's been employed for over 2 years by this company. While companies can often get away with employing someone for just under 40 hrs/wk, full time for 2 years is full time. She's being scammed and cheated here, and you can bet human resources knows this and hopes she won't catch on. I hope you can convince her to pursue this.
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krs
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posted on July 21, 2001 02:21:46 AM
Full time-part time often depends on the description of the position and is as often determinant in the acrual of benefits or even the reception of them. It has little to do with actual hours worked unless there are labor agreements in place which define a period of time working at a full time rate after which the position must be redefined as a full time one.
There's nothing that I've ever seen that says that a part time employee cannot work more than a set number of hours. Most, in fact endeavor to work as many as they can since their positions are flexible and allow for them NOT to receive many hours depending on an employers needs. The part time designation allows an employer to use that employee for less than a set number of hours without penalty of the gauranteed hours type.
And right, the family leave law won't pay people. It only requires the employer to grant the time and the employee is on his or her own. Many times a sick leave or vacation time balance will allow for pay to continue and under the law the employer must grant those types of pay if requested. But they would continue only until the employees bank of leave was exhausted.
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nanastuff
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posted on July 21, 2001 03:51:12 AM
Thank you, krs. From what I am reading (Dep't. of Labor) you are right on target.
"And right, the family leave law won't pay people. It only requires the employer to grant the time and the employee is on his or her own."
The 60% of her pay involves the personal benefit package that if offered by the privately owned nursing home (Ohio). My niece does get full insurance benefits although she is considered a part-time employee on paper. We are not looking for any pay from the Family Leave Act.
I contacted three attys. yesterday, spoke to three secretaries, and none of the attys. have called me back yet.
I will be getting her employee hand book today and look it over.
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zoomin
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posted on July 21, 2001 09:01:00 AM
Good Morning Nanastuff!
Does the employer regularly offer insurance benefits to part-time employees?
If not, when one of the attorneys return your call, be sure to ask:
Did the Nursing Home set a precedent by offering a "full-time" benefit to a "part-time" employee? Haven't they changed the status of the employee?
Laws vary from state to state, including the "fire at will" states. Most states must hold a position open for an employee while they are on maternity leave or disability. They also cannot legally fire an employee for filing legal preceedings.
Even if hired as a "temporary" employee (you mention PT, but not temp), her two years of employment would eradicate the "temp" status.
*Just some HR input that might help*
Good Luck!
only ZOOMIN here 
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Zazzie
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posted on July 21, 2001 10:21:33 AM
In Canada maternity benefits are paid as part of the Federal Employment Insurance plan that all employers and all employees contribute too.
It was recently increased to 12 months and either parent can take time, and it applies to adoption too.
The job must be held or a equal paying job
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debbielennon
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posted on July 21, 2001 12:28:39 PM
Good advice from zoomin'-----it does depend on the laws in your state, so that is where you should start.
In NY state, we had to be very careful about how many hours we scheduled our part-time employees. If you schedule them close enough to 40 hours a week for a certain number of weeks, they must be given full-time pay & benefits. (I don't recall the exact numbers, but I do know that as the primary schedule-writer for a couple-hundred people, 30 was the absolute maximum our company would let me schedule part-timers. The amoutn of maternity pay was also dependent on how long you were with the company. When I went on leave I had been there for 6 years full time & 1 year part time & received 90% of my pay as disability pay. Disability gave me 2 weeks before the baby & 6 weeks after off with pay. (You had to sit for one week with zero pay before disability kicked in there.) My employer let me tack on the 2 weeks of paid vacation that I had coming as well. I took an additional unpaid week and was given permission to take as many more weeks as I wanted.
I worked for an awesome company in a state with very good employee labor laws. Find out what the labor laws are in Ohio. I'm in Florida now, and we are a "right to work" state, which basically means that you have the right to not work if you don't like your employers rules. That would be why I work for myself now 
Good luck to you & your niece!
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